Two More Guilty Pleas Over NinjaVideo

from the close-it-out dept

This should come as absolutely no surprise (and, indeed, we predicted it), but following the guilty pleas of two of the admins for Ninjavideo, the two remaining Americans, who were indicted, have now accepted plea bargains as well. Compared to the first two, these two were small fry, and they must have realized that the government using the two others against them would leave them in serious trouble. Now all that's left is to see what kind of punishment the judge doles out. It would be interesting to see what kind of deal the government promised... and compare it to what the judge eventually does, but it seems like the legal fighting here is just about over. There was one more person indicted, but he's apparently in Greece, and the US government hasn't been able to find him yet.

Re:

True, the plea bargains generally have an agreement as to the sentence, that doesn't not mean the judge has to follow through with the deal. It just means that's the sentence the prosecution will request.

Shameless self-promoting over trivial prediction, Mike.

"(and, indeed, we predicted it)" -- It's a not-too-subtle way to build up his credibility, see?* Who but Mike could have predicted that defendants would take a plea deal? Only happens in vast majority of cases!

But at least he's quit contradicting statements made in court by the principals:
"We're [Mike Masnick] skeptical that the site ever made anywhere close to $500,000 or that Beshara made $200,000. So notice that the $200k number is mentioned in how much she made, but no amount is stated in how much the government took from her:

Beshara admitted that she and her co-conspirators collected more than $500,000 in overall proceeds during the website’s two-and-a-half years of operation, with Beshara personally receiving more than $200,000."

As if he had ANY basis to refute defendant statements! That was of course an attempt to bolster his position that no one ever profits from infringing.

Re: Re: Re: Can't find them because....

Yes. The stealth class taught by the patent trolls. Their organization should have been a shell company, with the official company office being a vacant room, just like the ones in Marshall, Texas. The controller of the said shell company should have been another shell company in a foreign tax-haven jurisdiction, which has strong privacy laws and police who are mysteriously unwilling to act.

Then the US shell company could cheerfully conduct business, without suffering the slightest danger to any of the ultimate owners. Nobody would know who they are. When the cops come knocking, all they find is the vacant room.